Commissary

After 15 years of serving an estimated five million hungry Philadelphians, the Commissary will close Oct. 25. The upscale cafeteria at 1710 Sansom St. was something of a sensation when Steve Poses opened it in 1976, and it prospered for many years. "But times change," Poses said yesterday. "We have to change with them. " Poses will move his catering operation into the space now occupied by the Commissary, with a "tasting office and library" facing Sansom Street. Poses said his extensive collection of "cookery bookery" will be accessible to the public by appointment.

Philadelphia will lose another vestige of its restaurant renaissance today with the closing of the Commissary cafeteria. "It's a shame," said Gary Bachman, one of several Commissary alumni who moved on to restaurants elsewhere in the city. "It's sort of a Philadelphia landmark. " The gourmet cafeteria at 1710 Sansom St. is one of a number of Center City restaurants that have recently fallen victim to the economy and to a newcomer: Liberty Place. Owner Steve Poses said business had dropped precipitously since the opening last year of the Liberty Place food court, less than a block and a half away.

Acting Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley told base personnel yesterday that the proposed realignment of the base meant that its active-duty wing would leave by Sept. 30, 1996. Donley, the highest-ranking Clinton administration official to visit the base in Burlington County since the Pentagon's hit list of base closures was announced in mid-March, came here to explain how the Air Force had arrived at its decision to recommend McGuire's realignment. But what Donley had to say yesterday, most already knew.

A district justice refused yesterday to dismiss any of the three counts of institutional sexual assault against Eileen Mayfield, the Montgomery County prison guard accused of engaging male inmates in sex acts and then rewarding them with treats from the commissary. At a resumption of Mayfield's preliminary hearing, her attorney, Jeffrey Allen Sigman, sought to prove that two of the counts had little merit and were based on "casual touches" with inmates Jasper Disanto, 22, and Jason Mascione, 23. But District Justice Benjamin Crahalla, who last month ordered that the 42-year-old Norristown woman face trial in Montgomery County Court, said testimony yesterday by former inmate Gene White, 24, further established "a course of conduct" by Mayfield.

February 9, 1999 | By David Cho and Gaiutra Bahadur, INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF

A Willingboro resident and two others pleaded guilty yesterday in a kickback scheme in which 3.4 million pounds of chicken poured into the McGuire Air Force Base commissary during a three-year period. At hearings yesterday in U.S. District Court in Newark, guilty pleas were accepted from Frank McNamee, 41, of Willingboro; John Cifaretto, 69, of Fair Haven, Monmouth County; and Gary Paterno, 61, of Palm Coast, Fla. Each faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison without parole and a $250,000 fine.

A female guard at Montgomery County prison who wrote letters to a young inmate describing how she loved to touch and tease him was ordered yesterday to face trial on charges that she engaged in sex acts with male prisoners, some of whom were given treats from the commissary she oversaw. Eileen Mayfield, 42, of Norristown, is charged with three counts of institutional sexual assault committed at the Eagleville facility. She has been suspended without pay. Testimony from inmates about Mayfield's touching them, along with three letters written by Mayfield to 24-year-old former inmate Gene White, established a pattern of behavior, District Justice Benjamin Crahalla said at a preliminary hearing in Collegeville.

Restaurateur Steve Poses' galaxy of Shooting Stars will be considerably dimmer in November when he closes his well-known Center City eatery Frog on Nov. 28. Poses emphasized yesterday that "I am not retiring. Only my friend Frog. " He said the restaurant has been ailing financially recently, although it had been successful for most of its 14 years. Poses said he plans to turn his attention to the remaining enterprises in his umbrella company, Shooting Stars. Those include The Commissary, The Market at the Commissary, The Commissary/Frog Catering, and the 16th Street Bar & Grill.

This lovely tray and platter only look like hand-painted ceramics from Marseille. They're actually light and durable, made of melamine. A nice gift for Mom for dinners on the back porch. Magical macaroons Here's something to serve on that platter - traditional French-style macarons, baked daily at the Garces Trading Company commissary. They're some of the best we've sampled: the egg-white-almond-flour cookies crisp and light; the densely creamy fillings minty (in the green one)

Prowling the back alleys of the city in search of photo galleries (which is getting harder and harder with all the trash piling up), I fail to find any new ones. But I have come across something Philadelphia has lots of: restaurants. True, but irrelevant, you say? Wrong, for restaurants happen to be a great source of wall space. And a lot of them fill it with photography. We photophiles would love to think that the city's restaurateurs are grand proponents of the photographic medium, taking up the slack where the galleries often fail us. But the art shows that hang in restaurants are little more than afterthoughts to the owners, proud as they may be of them.

Over the last few years, Philly's mobile-food industry has finally begun to catch up with the city's impressive restaurant scene, as dozens of chefs and entrepreneurs debut creative concepts well beyond gyros and soft pretzels. Now, those food trucks selling pork-cheek tacos and grass-fed burgers are spurring a secondary market: new and improved commissaries designed just for them. The facilities are equipped not just with basic prep tables and sanitizing sinks, but also with full commercial kitchens, secure parking, and lots of extras.

When Robert J. Twitchell took his wife and their four young children to their vacation home in New Hampshire in the 1960s, he didn't forget Sunday worship. He just did it himself, clergy-free. "We would go outside and with his prayer book he would conduct a service there, just the six of us," daughter Becky Roller recalled in an interview. He considered it "direct communication" with the Almighty, Roller said, "because we were outside in all that beauty. " On Thursday, May 2, Mr. Twitchell, 90, of Haddonfield, retired owner of a recycling equipment sales firm in Cherry Hill, died at Cooper University Hospital in Camden.

This lovely tray and platter only look like hand-painted ceramics from Marseille. They're actually light and durable, made of melamine. A nice gift for Mom for dinners on the back porch. Magical macaroons Here's something to serve on that platter - traditional French-style macarons, baked daily at the Garces Trading Company commissary. They're some of the best we've sampled: the egg-white-almond-flour cookies crisp and light; the densely creamy fillings minty (in the green one)

Two hundred and thirty years ago, Gen. George Washington and his exhausted and hungry Continental soldiers marched into Valley Forge. Their perseverance and achievements helped secure America's independence. The land where they suffered and ultimately prevailed is part of Americans' common heritage and is largely, but not completely, protected by Valley Forge National Historical Park. But now, this sacred place is threatened by a poorly conceived development proposal for private land in the park.

RE THE letter "Prisoner Poverty" (July 26): The writer and other inmates complain about leaving prison broke. Yet ask them how much of their 19-cents-an-hour income do they waste? They buy expensive commissary items, chips, soups, etc. No one here is starving. In fact, I'm certain the inmate that bought that meal at McDonald's wasn't even hungry. And ask them about the income received from families. How much of that do we spend in the institution, which supplies toothpaste, deodorant, toothbrush and basic clothing?

Near where Continental Army soldiers may have stood in line for meager rations during the brutal Valley Forge winter of 1777-78, commuters on Friday idled in snarled traffic on their daily trek to reach Route 422. And literally next-door to where wood fires would have warmed the commissary meals for Gen. George Washington's beleaguered troops, modern-day ranges cooled in the kitchens of spacious suburban colonials. This is the Valley Forge of today. Many Americans want to experience it as the revered site where Washington's army suffered and was reborn.

A district justice refused yesterday to dismiss any of the three counts of institutional sexual assault against Eileen Mayfield, the Montgomery County prison guard accused of engaging male inmates in sex acts and then rewarding them with treats from the commissary. At a resumption of Mayfield's preliminary hearing, her attorney, Jeffrey Allen Sigman, sought to prove that two of the counts had little merit and were based on "casual touches" with inmates Jasper Disanto, 22, and Jason Mascione, 23. But District Justice Benjamin Crahalla, who last month ordered that the 42-year-old Norristown woman face trial in Montgomery County Court, said testimony yesterday by former inmate Gene White, 24, further established "a course of conduct" by Mayfield.

A female guard at Montgomery County prison who wrote letters to a young inmate describing how she loved to touch and tease him was ordered yesterday to face trial on charges that she engaged in sex acts with male prisoners, some of whom were given treats from the commissary she oversaw. Eileen Mayfield, 42, of Norristown, is charged with three counts of institutional sexual assault committed at the Eagleville facility. She has been suspended without pay. Testimony from inmates about Mayfield's touching them, along with three letters written by Mayfield to 24-year-old former inmate Gene White, established a pattern of behavior, District Justice Benjamin Crahalla said at a preliminary hearing in Collegeville.

Montgomery County Prison Board chairman Richard T. Brown said yesterday that some changes were being made at the Eagleville facility in an effort to prevent opportunities for sexual contact between guards and inmates. Brown said the criminal investigation of a female guard accused of trading commissary goods for sex prompted the board to ask prison officials last week to improve inventory procedures at the commissary so that missing items would be noticed quickly. Warden Lawrence V. Roth Jr. and his staff were also asked "to come up with some guidelines and recommendations so that this won't happen again," Brown said.

A female prison guard at Montgomery County prison, who prosecutors say had been accused in the past of sexual misconduct on the job, was charged yesterday with luring inmates into having sex with her by bribing them with sweets, cigarettes, and other goods from the commissary. Eileen Mayfield, 42, of the 1200 block of Pine Street in Norristown, was charged with three counts of institutional sexual assault for engaging in sex acts with male prisoners who worked in the commissary that she oversaw at the Eagleville facility.